Data Analysis for Game Development

Exam 1 Topic Outline

Here is an outline of the topics that might be on Exam 1:

Introduction
- Motivation for data analysis for game development
- Data analysis pipeline
Fundamentals of statistics
- Population
- Sample
- Variable
- Observation
- Parameter
- Statistic
- Sources of data
  - Published
  - Experiments
  - Survey
- Sampling concepts
Presenting data
- Types of charts/presentations
  - For categorical data
    - Bar chart
    - Pareto chart
    - Pie chart
    - Cross-classification table
  - For numeric data
    - Frequency distribution table
    - Cumulative distribution
    - Histogram
    - Stem and leaf display
    - Time series plot
    - Scatter plot
    - Radar plot
  - Misc
    - Heat map
    - Movement node-link
- Guidelines for charts
  - Require minimum effort from reader
  - Maximize information
  - Minimize ink
  - Use commonly accepted practices
  - Avoid ambiguity
- Describing charts
  - Describe axes
  - Describe data sets/trendlines
  - Provide messages
- Common Mistakes
  - Presenting too many alternatives on one chart
  - Presenting many y-variables on one chart
  - Using symbols in place of text
  - Placing extraneous information on chart
  - Selecting scale ranges improperly
  - Using line chart instead of column chart
  - Non-zero origins/broken scales
  - Pictograms scaled by height (and other pictorial games)
  - Inappropriate sized cells in histograms
Descriptive statistics
- Measures of central tendency
  - Mean
  - Median
  - Mode